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This morning we all did one same thing.

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To get here, we had to cross many roads,
walking or by car.

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I hope that from now on crossing the road

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is transformed into a new experience.

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So I invite you all
to cross the road with me.

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I am going to cross from this corner to that one.

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Cars come from both directions.
Can you see it?

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The little man is on white, which means
I can cross, so I go ahead.

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Ah, there’s a car coming and its
turn signal is on, he wants to turn here,

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just where I want to cross.

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Let’s freeze the scene in that moment.

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What would happen if they all
followed the law?

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It’s simple, the driver stops,
the pedestrian crosses.

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The pedestrian goes along,
then the driver, and that’s it.

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There’s no negotiation, no dialogue.

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Well, in reality we had
this dialogue 80 years ago

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when we agreed the prioritize
pedestrians in crossings.

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But that’s what should happen.

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Look at all that does happen.

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The pedestrian thinks:
What should I do, cross or not cross?

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The little man is on white,
but if this guy starts?

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The driver thinks:
Ugh, I have to brake just now,

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when I had a green wave going.

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Ultimately,
what ends up happening?

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What happens is the pedestrian waits
and the driver passes.

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And the pedestrian waits for all
the cars to pass and only then

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if the little man is still on white, crosses.

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Sometimes the pedestrian puts
one foot in the asphalt,

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and the other one, trying
to start taking some ground.

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Usually the driver ignores this.

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But let’s suppose this morning
the driver woke up feeling sensitive

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and wants to let the pedestrian cross.

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What do us Argentines do when
we want to let a pedestrian cross?

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And what does the pedestrian do?

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He crosses.

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And while he does, what does he do?

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He signals thanks. And hurries, so that
the driver doesn’t change his mind.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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What sort of typically Argentine
choreography did we just describe?

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It’s like a tango, no?

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Because it might end up well,
or it might end up badly,

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but we always suffer.

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Let’s put a name on this,
let’s call it “the corner dance”.

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And how do you dance the corner dance?

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The pedestrian shows interest,
the driver accepts and brakes,

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they meet eyes and connect,
but what’s necessary is

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the driver’s visible gesture, no?

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As if he was saying: “I, the driver,
allow you the grace

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of crossing through
the pedestrian crossing”.

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The pedestrian, as we said, accepts
and expresses his gratitude:

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“Oh drive, lord of the automobiles

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and knight of all means of transport,
I thank you for your generosity”

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and crosses.

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Only then the driver is satisfied.

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What would have happened
if the driver hadn’t signaled thanks?

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"Can you believe that?

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I let him cross and he says nothing”.

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Attention to the driver’s anger,
it’s telling us something.

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It probably indicates us that the driver

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feels he did something good
above from what’s expected from him.

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My name is José Nesis,
I’m a pedestrian, a driver

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and for many years I’ve been
trying to understand

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why in the country of smart guys
we kill each other like idiots.

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(Applause)

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Also, I’m part of a team
that thinks the street

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is the quintessential
space of social intersection,

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that it’s the expression of
what we are as a society.

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And it’s logical to think
that if we improve as such

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we’ll improve in the street.

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We believe that
the contrary is also true.

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If we improve in the street,
we’ll improve as a society.

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In Argentina, at least
2 people die every day

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from what we call “insecurity,”

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that is, in robberies and kidnappings.

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In that same time, between
15 to 20 people lose their lives

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in traffic accidents,
that is, almost 10 times more.

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However, those 2 deaths impact us
much more than those 20.

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Why?

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Why does our brain deceive us
into believing the risk of dying

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in a kidnapping or in a robbery
is much higher than the one of

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dying, or killing, in
a traffic accident?

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Another singularity of
traffic accidents

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— that for the most part are not accidents,
that needs to be said—

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is that there are no beneficiaries.

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In corruption, the beneficiaries
are the corrupt,

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in drug trafficking, the drug traffickers,

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in general felony, the beneficiaries
are the felons.

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In traffic accidents, nobody is.

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There are no beneficiaries
and neither there is a mob

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that plans traffic accidents.

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Therefore, if not we don’t
even have to fight against

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a powerful external enemy,

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why is it so hard?

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There’s a Colombian philosopher and
mathematician called Antanas Mockus,

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he was twice mayor of Bogotá
and changed that city’s culture.

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He both lowered crime
and traffic accidents.

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He was interested in understanding
how people relate to rules,

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and how do we get to follow agreements.

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He was based on the idea
that our behavior

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is determined by three
main regulators:

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law, morality, and culture,

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that can be expressed
positively or negatively

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leading to some possibilities
we’ll see now.

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For example, we can follow laws,

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even laws we don’t like,

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because we value the effort
put behind them.

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In this case, the electoral,
deliberative process.

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Other times we follow rules
out of fear of the legal sanction.

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It may also be that we do it

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because we feel good
when we do.

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Or because we want to
avoid the feeling of guilt

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that invades us when we don’t.

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Another reason to comply
is the search of social prestige,

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of external approval, or simply
of avoiding its opposite;

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disapproval, public scrutiny.

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As we see, we choose not to follow rules
not for a single motive,

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there’s not a single mind.

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There’s an experiment
that was done many times

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with audiences like this one.

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We asked people the following:

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Which of these six options
represents you better?

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And the most chosen one
is this one: people say

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they follow rules because
they feel good when they do.

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Then we ask those same people

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why do they think the majority
of the population follows rules

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and the most chosen option
inevitably this one:

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out of fear of punishment.

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That means that those of us
here are wonderful people,

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we follow the rules

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because we feel good
when we do, we’re awesome.

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Instead, the majority of
people outside,

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those that couldn’t come here,

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the majority of the population,
they comply out of fear of punishment,

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they just behave that way.

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The problem is that this is the belief
that policymakers have in mind

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when they plan policies like
a road safety campaign.

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As we said, if there’s not a single mind

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there can’t be a single campaign

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much less one based almost
exclusively in the fear of punishment.

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You see, there’s almost
10,000 of us here

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and I don’t see anyone smoking.

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I’m sure that more than one
here is dying to smoke.

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Why don’t you do it?

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Because it’s forbidden?

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How many of you were ever punished

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by the sanctions contemplated
in the anti-tobacco law?

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Or even better, how many of you
know at least one person

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that has been sanctioned
by the anti-tobacco law?

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Therefore, we have a case
of a 100% successful norm

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and practically no punishments.

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Unless we consider that
it’s because of the signs

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over there that say
“no smoking”.

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I recently travelled to Spain

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and when I got to the Barajas airport

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I asked a policeman where the
migration line for foreigners was.

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He replied: “Argentine, right?”

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I said “Yes, how did you know?
By the accent?”

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“No,” he said. “Because you Argentines

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are the only ones who ask even when
there’s this huge sign above”.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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And it’s true, there was a huge sign
with precise information.

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It was unmistakable.

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In what moment did we Argentines
become suspicious of what’s said

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in signs, in notices?

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Was it when we discovered the
10:24 train to Constitución

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departs at 10:35, at 11:53, at 9:00?

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Or when the price of a product changes
whether you get a receipt or not?

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Well, since 1930 with Uriburu
and up to Videla

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we were told we had to call
president of the nation

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a military officer that that usurped
the government office.

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(Applause)

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In any way, we don’t trust
signs, boards.

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And deep down we’re a bit proud
of this suspicion,

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signs are for the dumb guys.

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We’re different.

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For us, if the sign is the norm,
then we go to the person

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that’s watching it and we tell them:

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“Yeah, the sign says that
but how is it really here?”

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(Laughter)

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We have to recognize that many times
the signs are either not there,

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or misplaced, which
ends up giving them

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a merely illustrative function.

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The “stop” sign

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to us means “stops, sort of.”

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(Laughter)

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The problem is that this
exercise we do

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of free deliberation and of reinvention
of the norm in every corner,

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is not only dangerous,
but it also takes from us

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an enormous amount of energy.

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Well, what can we do?

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Can we do something?

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Remember our corner dance?

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When we ask the pedestrian
why he doesn’t he cross,

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he says he’s waiting
for the cars to pass.

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When we ask the driver
why doesn’t he stop

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he says a car is going to come
from behind and crash him,

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that’s going to honk at him,
that’s going to insult him.

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The car from behind, that was the problem.

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Sure, because if the car from behind
kept the stopping distance,

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the one in front stops slowly
and our pedestrian happily crosses.

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Issue settled.

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That’s the recipient of our
campaigns: the car from behind.

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But, who’s the car from behind?

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The car from behind can be any of us.

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The care from behind can be the State,

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the car from behind can be culture.

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00:14:07,770 --> 00:14:10,576
The care from behind isn’t even a car,

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the card from behind is a third party,
and it’s a witness.

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It’s the piece we were missing so that
we can talk about context

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and it’s the possibility of leaving
this game of opposites

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that seems so mortifying.

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Let’s return to our corner
dance for one last time.

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00:14:30,433 --> 00:14:32,466
Up to now we had two main protagonists:

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the pedestrian and the driver.

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We now have a third one:
the car from behind.

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You can be any of them,

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00:14:39,917 --> 00:14:41,500
but you can also be another pedestrian,

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you can the lady in the flower shop,

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the guy in the newsstand,

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you can be a girl going
in the backseat

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or a person that stares
from the window of a bus.

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You can be protagonists
or you can be witnesses.

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But you’re part of the corner dance
which is more than a traffic issue,

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it’s a social choreography.

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00:15:04,689 --> 00:15:08,683
Many times people tell me,
do you know how’s it’s going to be solved?

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With the autonomous car.

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They drive themselves, coordinate
among them, so goodbye corner dance.

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Maybe, but until them
we have an opportunity

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to change our culture.

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A window of one or two decades perhaps,

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because we’re definitely
not ready for the future

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and we have yet to see
if we’re ready for the present.

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It’s very hard to follow
a system of rules

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when someone feels they’re
the only one doing so

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and, in fact, nobody wants to be
the first one to follow the law.

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That’s why our success will depend
in our ability

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to generate contexts

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where following our agreements
is something natural.

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Contexts in which for example

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a driver that doesn’t let
a pedestrian cross

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00:16:01,332 --> 00:16:06,696
is something so unthinkable
as me lighting up a cigarette here.

244
00:16:08,586 --> 00:16:15,167
We tend to think big changes
require massive efforts,

245
00:16:15,567 --> 00:16:18,935
but sometimes the solution
is in one small detail

246
00:16:19,135 --> 00:16:21,571
like the domino
the pushes the next one

247
00:16:21,571 --> 00:16:24,817
and in one given moment
the change becomes visible.

248
00:16:25,717 --> 00:16:30,773
Big policies are not made
in the desks of presidents,

249
00:16:30,773 --> 00:16:34,597
in a top-down manner,
they’re built in a corner

250
00:16:34,997 --> 00:16:40,316
or in a thousand corners and then
laws come to give them form.

251
00:16:40,796 --> 00:16:42,266
One thing I do know,

252
00:16:42,366 --> 00:16:45,529
if we improve in the street,
we improve as a society.

253
00:16:45,699 --> 00:16:47,045
Let’s improve in the street.

254
00:16:47,045 --> 00:16:48,031
Thank you.

255
00:16:48,031 --> 00:16:50,912
(Applause)